COGdesign’s Jean Krasnow Honored

The Landscape Design Council (LDC) of Massachusetts recently announced that Jean Krasnow, projects coordinator and acting director of COGdesign, is the 2017 winner of the Landscape Design Council Award for Excellence, given in recognition of outstanding civic accomplishment.

“Over the past decade, Jean Krasnow has contributed her time and expertise to COGdesign. Her dedication and support has ensured its continuance as a valuable resource for effective and attractive landscape design for underserved communities,” said Chris Cotter, LDC chairman. “We bestow this award in recognition of all she has done to make the Boston area a more vibrant and viable community for its residents.”

Krasnow first became involved with COGdesign through her design studies at the Landscape Institute, and she joined the board in 2007. She served as president from 2010 to 2013 and has subsequently held positions on the board of directors, most recently stepping in as director while the organization conducts a search for its new leader.

Jean earned a bachelor of arts and a master of arts in teaching from Cornell University, focusing on history and education. In 2006, after a career of teaching high school and college students, she retired as associate director of education programs in the School of Education at Northeastern University.

In her very active retirement, Krasnow has chaired the advisory board of the Trinity Excellence in Education Program, serving Boston students in grades 7-12, and has taken on volunteer leadership roles in The Food Project’s Build and Grow Program at the Urban Farm Roxbury, where teens work on local farms that distribute healthy food to Boston-area communities. She is a gardener and student of plants and design.

COGdesign is a not-for-profit service organization that connects underserved communities with technical design assistance to bring healthy, attractive, and useful open spaces to their neighborhoods. In developing landscape designs that respond to community needs, the organization generates meaningful professional experience for student and practicing landscape designers, and creates volunteer opportunities for others interested in strengthening communities by creating and improving neighborhood green spaces.

Organized in 1963, the Landscape Design Council (LDC) of Massachusetts operates under the auspices of National Garden Clubs, Inc. and is a special-subjects group of the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts, Inc. The purpose of LDC is to provide ongoing landscape-design education through speakers, workshops, and tours of outstanding public and private areas. The Massachusetts chapter is the largest Council in the US. It provides judges for the Boston Flower & Garden Show, where it presents three landscape-design awards of its own.

LDC members have completed Landscape Design School, a series of four 10-hour courses, and passed the required examinations, entitling them to become NGC-accredited Landscape Design Consultants. Members act in an advisory capacity to encourage awareness of the need for good landscape architectural practice, serving as guardians of environmental beauty by applying what they have learned to individual and community projects. LDC members promote environmental interests through work on town committees and boards.

For more information about Landscape Design School, call program chairman Maureen O’Brien at 508-429-1026 or email at maureen.t.obrien@outlook.com. For more information about LDC, call chairman Georgia Papavasiliou at 508-429-1026 or email at logganiko@verizon.net.

Congratulations and Best Wishes, Jean Krasnow!

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(We sincerely thank Frances Wheeler for the above press information. An experienced PR and marketing-communications consultant, she has developed and executed successful corporate and product marketing initiatives for numerous organizations. For more information, call 978-475-7970.)